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Topic: A New Age Of Adventure (Read 4801 times)

In an war that lasted only an hour, the world of the Old Ones was erased. Their mighty weapons shook the heavens and the earth, and all of mankind was laid low. The gods were then angry- who is this creature, man, to lift up his hands and mock the works of the Mighty Ones who made the heavens and the earth? The earth rose in calamity, and all who remained fled away into the corners of the land, cowering away from the Gods.

In time, the great judgment passed. The world was reborn, and from the dark places crept that animal, man, once more. New tribes were born, and new kingdoms. New frontiers were forged into the reborn wilderness. The world that man had once taken measure of from heaven to its burning heart was new all over again, a resurrected magnificence. The wrath of the gods was spent, and a new beginning was ordained for mankind.

And out of the tribes and out of the new kingdoms there came those who sought to drive back the darkness which had arisen once again on the earth. Sorcerors who had regained the ancient magic, demons, mutants, and other evils, these propagated once more in the dark places of the world.

An apocalyptic war (including nuclear exchange but also including other titanic weapons) which lasted only an hour destroyed civilization. A post-apocalyptic period followed, including enormous environmental upheaval. The more powerful of the old weapons caused enormous earthquakes and volcanic activity, as well as physically breaking apart the surface of the earth. Floods and land-surface upheavals followed, and the atmospheric disruptions caused huge storms. The general outlines of the continents remain, but the lands are often hugely changed.

-The Kingdom of Saiyital: sitting north of the Orgon Country on the shores of the Great Saiyital Bay, this kingdom was ruled from behind the throne until recently by the infamous Wolf Hats, the Priest-Mathematicians of Sharsh'i. The current King of Saiyital, His Resplendency King Joyishal, managed to shake off the influence of the sinister Wolf Hats by subverting the Electors and assassinating those who could not be bribed or induced to turn to his side. He has now gathered a great army and is embarking upon a great expansion of the Saiyital Kingdom, southward into the Orgon Country and eastward into the Eastern Marches (in the process conquering the Hladinoh kingdom of Zabrass). So far, the soldiers of the King of Saiyital have not faced much resistance, but what will happen when they are opposed by more than scattered tribesmen and desert raiders? And what will be the next machination of the Wolf Hats?

-The Orgon Country: A land of deep, untouched wilderness, the Orgon Country is a slumbering land in which the Orgon tribes, in their collections of fortified villages, live out a ritualistic existence as fishermen, jealously guarding the secret locations of their poison-free fisheries. In the forest, the ruins of the old Orgon Kingdom, constructed around the even older ruins (said to be from before the One-Hour War), lurk, filled with ancient horrors and serving as homes to sorcerors and tribes of mutants. The Orgon Country is also home to some of the only tribes of Christians who remain in the Land; these ancient people follow strange rituals and worship a dead god.

A note: Hladinohs, mentioned earlier, are a people descended from the Latino population of the United States in the aftermath of the One-Hour War. The Hladinohs have many hundreds of kingdoms, some smaller and some larger, and are typically inclined to be traders.

-The Kingdom Of Rauki: In the mountains east of Saiyital and the scattered Hladinoh states of the deserts, a species of mutants gather under the banner of the feared and fabled Muutanti Emperor, The Masked King, President Of The Misborn, Rauki Mankiller. Establishing his fledgling nation on the power of his black-armored mutant warriors and on great communal farms worked by human slaves, Rauki has made of the scattered mutant tribes of this area a force to be reckoned with in a matter of a decade. Those humans who have escaped Rauki's kingdom speak of strange rituals in Rauki's capitol at Maugaal, and of the black magics practiced by the sorcerors who dwell within the Muutanti Emperor's borders.

-Ohahlah: Lying in the deserts somewhere between Rauki's kingdom and the Orgon Country, this kingdom is the most powerful of the Hladinoh kingdoms save only for the Kingdom of Rinoh to the south. The Ohahlahis are known for their past as Christians, and though these traditions have mostly died out, they are known for the scattered populations of Christians and other strange religions within their borders. They are the major trading power of the region, and their fortified market-cities are cosmopolitan, busy places, where merchants, nobles, and commons alike mingle in huge crowds and drown themselves in hedonism. The king of the Ohahlahis is the High King Mishwo Garashia, who, it is rumored, is dying of a strange sickness. The Ohahlahis face the encroaching armies of the mutant king Rauki from the east, and the jealous border wars of rival kingdoms in the west. In the south, the badlands harbor demons, mutants, and sorcerors; a fragile treaty holds these trading people back from the brink of war with the Rinohzis to the farther south.